What is currently the best analog to digital (A/D) converter?

[GHasley]

No intent to derail this thread, (and mods, if I should start another thread, please let me know or do so at will) however, but is there available d to d "recorder" software/hardware solution(s)?

My desire is "record" the improved/upsampled 24/192 digital stream coming out of my Grimm Mu-1 and then play it back in another room. The upsampled and "treated" digital stream from the Grimm is presently fed to an aes/ebu attached dac in my main listening room in real time but there are a number of 16/44.1 recordings I have burned on my NAS that I would like to play back via roon to a remote 24/192 dac in another system in my home.

 

[Ian B]

No intent to derail this thread, (and mods, if I should start another thread, please let me know or do so at will) however, but is there available d to d "recorder" software/hardware solution(s)?

My desire is "record" the improved/upsampled 24/192 digital stream coming out of my Grimm Mu-1 and then play it back in another room. The upsampled and "treated" digital stream from the Grimm is presently fed to an aes/ebu attached dac in my main listening room in real time but there are a number of 16/44.1 recordings I have burned on my NAS that I would like to play back via roon to a remote 24/192 dac in another system in my home.

Most recording interfaces have an input for digital AES/EBU that will accommodate 24/192.

 

[mg248]

Another good A/D that came out not that long ago and hasn't been mentioned here is the RND Master Bus Converter.

It uses a modern AKM chip which seems to be much better than the typical and very old (2006?) Ti 4222 chips used in most A/D converters. It has no digital glare at all. There's a comparison with other ADCs on Youtube. You can listen for yourself.

That and the JCF Latte are the best options if you're looking for a more analog sound under $10k.

There's also Acousence in Germany making good A/D converters, but I haven't used those.

 

[Lee]

It matters a lot, and arguably is a much greater bottleneck than the playback deck, but you don't know that until you hear it on a really good DAC.

The best current production ADCs are Lavry Savitr, DAD AX32/Avid MTRX, Merging Horus, and JCF Latte (for those who like a more analog-esque sound). Pacific Microsonics Model 2 is still very popular decades later, but I personally think it needs an external clock to mitigate all the jitter. Prism ADA-8XR is still somewhat popular too.

The MSB ADC V are extremely rare in the wild, and was a bit of a bust for the company. A friend inquired to buy one, but apparently he'd have to order a batch of ten for MSB to consider it. I guess mastering engineer's weren't interested, but the one Ted Jensen has sounds excellent (though I wish he wouldn't clip it for loudness)

I own a Mytek Brooklyn ADC, which is also discontinued, but I think it sounds really good with an external power supply and compared well to the PM Model 2, if very different. (the Model 2 has an enormous PSU and was valued around 18k when they were originally built). I would really like to try the rare in the wild Playback Designs Pinot for DSD recording which is also supposed to be good according to Bruce.

A couple other fun ones are Burl B2 Bomber and B80 multichannel system. They use input transformers along with class A, and sound slightly colored and weighty like tape (but not as much as JCF converters). It's not necessarily a reference ADC, but they sound very musical and pleasing, especially for multichannel recordings.

Chesky Records still uses the MSB ADC V I believe.

Another one that is excellent is the Benchmark ADC1. I have had good luck with that on classical ensemble recordings.

I was just with Jerry Harrison and he uses the Burl devices for personal work and likes them for their musicality. He’s not sure if they are the last word on resolution.

 

[Lee]

Robert Watts has developed an ADC for internal use at Chord I believe.

It’s always good for a DAC manufacturer to have an ADC as that can be a good instrument for testing the sound quality.

 

[Lee]

Most recording interfaces have an input for digital AES/EBU that will accommodate 24/192.

SoundDevices work well in this respect.

 

[BruceD]

Don't forget Mike Moffat's Gain System 1 --I think he made two of them--I was offered one years ago don't know where it ended up.
Rumours that Schiit may have one in the pipeline.

BD